And if the pointus and the yachts were only the only boats in the port of Nice? Exit cruise ships considered bulky and polluting? For most people interviewed by 20 minutes in this district, they would not frankly be missed.
The owner of a restaurant on the Isle of Beauty even believes “that they only bring mess [sic] “. In the thirty-nine years he has been there, he has seen people come down from these giants of the seas. But it is only with “the sailors” that he works. The cruise passengers, themselves, “have already eaten, already drunk and they are only looking for Galeries Lafayette. »
Vegetate and electrify
On the other side, on the Infernet wharf, Fred, the chef of La Barque bleue thinks for his part that there would “necessarily be negative economic repercussions”. “As soon as you touch one sector, the others suffer. We cannot estimate the percentage that this represents but we still receive a lot from Club Med”. He adds: “If it’s not the boats, it’s the planes, if it’s not the planes, it’s the cars. What needs to be stopped is mass tourism. But it’s complicated to combine economy and ecology. »
Yet this is what the city of Nice would like to do. In September, Christian Estrosi even announced that he wanted a “tax of 60 euros per stopover and per car” for the Corsica Ferries, arguing that these ships released as much CO2 as on “a Brussels-New York round trip”. It is also for ecological reasons that two weeks ago, Olivier Bettati, in charge of the port mission, had an “old” cruise ship, theAegean Odyssey. “This kind of decision is part of the evolution of the city,” he explains to 20 minutes.
“A showcase of Nice”
Discussions are still underway to find “alternatives with Corsica Ferries” but this tax idea is “on stand by”, he confides. “Hence the urgency of electrifying the docks, to plug in and turn off the motors, he continues. And hence the desire to vegetate the port and thus prevent cars from remaining for hours with the engine on with the air conditioning to board. If there are trees, we can stay in the shade, in the cool”. He specifies that with the requalification, “cruise ships will always be welcome if they are less than 140 m”.
For Solange, 66, a “neighbourhood child”, it is indeed “essential to find a solution for pollution”. “The port is very lively, there is a soul here. Be careful not to turn it into a showcase for Nice because today there are only restaurants and bars”.
The weight of cruises
For the year 2022, “96 stopovers in total are expected at the port of Nice, thus confirming a resumption of cruise activity”, indicated the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Nice, also owner of the port. In 2019, the reference year, there were 87 stopovers. According to the latest reports from the CCI, nearly 611,000 passengers passed through the Côte d’Azur knowing that 83% of them spend money in the city.